Birmingham's manufacturing employment growth last year is what helped land it on the Forbes list. In the rankings, noted economic journalist Joel Kotkin pointed to the metro area's 38,900 manufacturing jobs in 2013 as being 3.4 percent higher than the previous year. That recent growth was in spite of a 3.8 percent loss of jobs between 2008 and 2013.

Rick Davis, head of economic development at the Birmingham Business Alliance, said the Forbes ranking confirms what officials here have recognized.

"I think what it does for me is it validates what we've been seeing over the last year or two or three," Davis said. "We're seeing job growth and it starts with manufacturing."

While several of the cities in the Top 10 could attribute the growth to the energy sector, many of the Southern cities are seeing growth in traditional manufacturing and skilled labor jobs.

"Although we will likely never see a boom in factory employment on the scale experienced in the last century, the demand for blue-collar skills is projected to increase in future years." Kotkin wrote in the article. "By 2020, according to BCG and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation could face a shortfall of around 875,000 machinists, welders, industrial-machinery operators, and other highly skilled manufacturing professionals."

Kotkin went on to write, "Our research suggests that much of this growth will be in metro areas in the South and the Great Plains that are known for friendly business climates. New industrial investment is tending to go to places that are largely non-union, and feature lower taxes and light regulation."

Davis said the Birmingham metro area is poised to attract new industry and help existing ones expand.

"Any community will tell you that manufacturing is the base," he said. "Manufacturing is in Birmingham's DNA. We've done it since 1871 and we still do it well."

The Forbes article started by ranking 357 metro areas based on manufacturing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2002 through January 2014. The rankings are based on recent growth trends for the last year and the last two years, mid-term growth for 2008-13, long-term growth for 2002-13 and long-term momentum comparing 2008-2013 to 2002-2007. The rankings were then broke out based on the size of the cities. The largest ones where Birmingham-Hoover ranked sixth were for the 66 metros with more than 450,000 jobs overall.

In the mid-sized category, Mobile ranked third while in the small metro category, Florence-Muscle Shoals came out on top in the No. 1 spot.

With a number of announcements of expansions and new jobs already this year and several economic development projects in the pipeline, Davis said he expects the metro area will continue to build on the momentum.

"These sectors that are key to Birmingham are improving and now another national publication has taken note of it," Davis said.